Fast
by KittyThomas
Summary: Set after "The Usual Suspects" and before the Team realise something is amiss! Wally and Artemis have a, er, "confrontation" in the Souvenir Room.


**A/N: For once, I really don't have much to say about this fic. Hmm. I don't own any of the characters, Enjoy?**

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Artemis was in the trophy room, staring up at Sportmaster's mask, when she became aware of someone watching her. His presence wasn't annoying her as much as it usually did, so she carried on staring up at the shelf, ignoring him for the time being.

Nearly her entire family was on that shelf now. There was her father's mask, and Jade's, and even her own arrow. Wally had brought it back from a mission before she even joined the team. She'd had to use it when the Red Robots attacked the Base, but he must have found another one and put it back.

She took the arrow off the shelf and admired it for a moment. For some reason, Artemis quite liked the idea of Wally keeping her arrow, and she felt a strange, pleasant stir inside her when she thought of him secretly putting it back. She hardly applauded her idea of objectifying _her- _but it was just an arrow. A little thing of hers he'd kept, counted among their memories, his treasures.

She smiled wryly, glad he couldn't read her thoughts, and put them away with the arrow.

"You know, for a guy who has a stealth mode for his costume, you're really not very stealthy."

Wally grinned, shrugging from the door frame. "You don't need to be stealthy-" he said, and promptly dissolved into a blur of red and blue, re-appeared behind her, "-when you can move as fast as the speed of sound!"

"Right," Artemis said, the corners of her mouth twitching. She reached out a hand while Wally was still regaining his footing and flicked lightly him on the forehead, making him topple to the ground like a pack of cards. "You're fast, Wally."

"That's what she said- wait, wha-? I didn't mean that..."

Artemis laughed. In fact, she made a sound suspiciously like a giggle, and Wally smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. She offered him her hand.

"Here."

"Thanks."

Artemis still couldn't quite shake the smiled as she helped him to his feet. Perhaps it was just having the weight off her shoulders, of knowing she didn't have to hide any part of herself any more, but she felt different. Not just liberated, and not exactly weightless (quite the contrary, the strange, squirming, fluttering feeling in her stomach she often felt around Wally was heavier than ever and keeping her firmly rooted to the ground) but definitely different. More at ease. More herself. It was difficult to explain even in her head.

"You totally let me have that one," she said, referring to his fall. "You let me get the better of you."

"Had to happen sometime, babe."

A normal girl might have punched his shoulder in, possibly even in an affectionate manner. Artemis, however, was not a normal girl. She punched him in the shoulder, yes, to imbalance him, but then she brought her left legging swinging round the back of his knees and sent him crashing to the floor.

"Oof!" said Wally.

"I'm sorry, you were saying?"

"All right, all right!" he jumped back to his feet. "You had me. That time."

Artemis narrowed her arrow-like eyes.

"And many other times. Many." He added very quickly.

Artemis smiled.

"So, er," Wally starting, his eyes darting to the other side of the room. "What are you doing her?"

Artemis shrugged, looking back at the shelf. "Just thinking."

"About your family?"

She nodded. "A little bit. Mostly about me."

"You?"

"Yeah. At how relieved I am now everyone finally knows. You can't know-" she stopped suddenly, feeling a wave of foolishness wash over her.

_Just leave it,_ she told herself._ Leave it alone. You don't need to know how he really feels. He's accepted you already. Don't tempt fate. Just leave it be._

"We would never have held it against you, you know."

Artemis stared at him. "Really?" she said, hoping he'd pick up on the disbelief in her voice. Wally wasn't the most subtle of people, so she wasn't really expecting much. "Even when we first met?"

"I didn't know you then! I didn't know that..."

"Know what?

"Er, nothing."

"You were going to finish that sentence."

"No I wasn't..."

"Tell me the truth. Please."

"Well, er," he bowed his head. "Yeah, OK, we would have held it against you then. Even me. Especially me."

This was not the truth Artemis was expecting. She thought he was going to tell her what he'd been about to say, not confirm what she already knew. And she did know it. Of course they wouldn't have accepted her off the bat, knowing who her family was. That's the whole reason she'd pretended to be Green Arrow's niece in the first place, why the League had agreed to help her... For some reason though, it still hurt to here Wally say that.

It was difficult to look him in the eyes and hold her voice steady as she asked, "Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"Because," Wally said, with a sudden look of serious intent that was really quite shocking, "I'm not very good at seeing what's right in front of me."

"Uh-huh." Artemis was now feeling slightly worried. There was a weakness in her knees that hadn't been there before, and Wally's suddenly looked so much brighter and bigger than they had ever seen before, like green pieces of cut glass. He also seemed to be dangerously close. She felt hot, almost feverish. Had he always been his close? Had his eyes always been that colour? What was wrong with her? Had someone nicked her with a poisoned arrow? She was just about to start checking about her skin for darts when Wally's voice stopped her.

"Artemis..."

Again, he had that seriousness, that intensity, despite the glowing red colour of his cheeks. They were nearly as bright as his skin.

Maybe it was gas. Poisoned gas. The room had been sabotaged. They were under attack.

"Wally, maybe we should-"

"Artemis," Wally said again, his face now becoming dangerously close to resembling a tomato. "Can you do me a favour, please, and just shut up?"

Artemis scowled her very darkest of scowls, the only she reserved only for utmost injustices, and Wally West.

"Don't tell me to-"

Before Artemis could say another word, Wally West had closed the gap between the two of them and planted a very sudden, very firm kiss on her lips. Artemis barely had time to make any murmur of indignation -or approval- before he jumped back again.

"Good, you're quiet now," he said triumphantly, looking a lot braver than he had a few seconds ago. His eyes were sparkling. Artemis guessed he was taking the fact he was not lying on the floor as a good sign. Try as she might, she could not muster up the courage to be annoyed at him right now. She was more focused on the strange -and rather disconcerting thought- that that kiss had not been long enough.

"What I wanted to say," he carried on, his eyes having difficulty remaining on hers, "or really, I was thinking that, perhaps... er,"

"Wow, Wally West, lost for words," Artemis couldn't help but smile. "Who would have thought we'd see the day. You're so _smooth _with the other girls."

"Yeah well, you're not exactly like the _other girls_, are you?"

Artemis was taken aback. "That actually sounded vaguely... flattering. I'm flattered. Was that your intention?"

"Well, er, yeah."

"Well, er, kiss me again."

Wally very comically jumped back a couple of spaces. "Wha-?"

"I said, _kiss me again._ And if you don't do it soon, I'm retracting my offer-"

The words had not even left her mouth before his lips were pressed against hers, tighter this time, knocking them back into the souvenir display. One of Wally's arms was around her waist, the other resting against the shelf, holding them steady. Artemis pressed her hands against the small of his back and pulled him towards her, deepening the kiss and feeling the caterpillars in her stomach transform into butterflies. _This _was what weightlessness felt like and it was... it was _good. _

"My God, Wally West," she said when they broke apart, wondering if her voice was as breathless as she felt. "You really are fast!"

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A/N:**Review! Please? If you like...**


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